56 Sermon Illustrations on Gambling

Nigel Blundell, deputy Editor of the London tabloid, the Star, says the three best words in the newspaper business, in alphabetical order, are "free," "sex" and "win." He tries to use them frequently in headlines.

Gives historical overview of lotteries in U.S. New England is hotbed of gambling. In 1832 lottery ships gave out $600 million in today's value. Today lotteries take in $15.6 billion. $2.5 billion is bet on Super Bowl alone.

Problems with gambling - wealth without work, emphasis on sudden wealth, reliance on fate or chance, damage to democratic politics. Social health used to rely on taxes but now evades them and uses gimmick of gambling.

Gambling has become an obsession in America. Biggest spectator sport in U.S.? Baseball? Football? No, horse racing. A New Jersey woman embezzled $38,000 from the bank she worked at so she could play the lottery. When New York lottery reached $41 million, a 70-year-old man waited 5 hours in line. When he finally got to the counter, he collapsed, taking a rack of newspapers with him to the floor. His first words after being revived? "Can I have my tickets, please?"

You may be surprised to know that America began as a gambling nation. George Washington, the father of the country, declared: "Gambling is the child of greed, the brother of sin and the father of mischief." George also kept a full diary of his own winnings and losses at the card table.

In 1776 the First Continental Congress sold lottery tickets to finance the Revolution. Washington, D.C. was built with lottery money, and George bought the first ticket.

Congress may commission a study of consequences of gambling. Only two states make it illegal. Wagering was pandemic in 18th-century Britain and most people saw all of life as a gamble. Massachusetts Puritans passed America's first law against gambling in 1638, and George Washington was distressed by the level of gambling among his troops at Valley Forge (yet he also supported a lottery to finance construction of District of Columbia).

Big government now depends on big gambling. It is exploiting what Robert Goodman, a student of gambling, calls "the pathology of hope," which is particularly strong among the poor who have lost confidence in work as a means of upward mobility. Kim Phillips, a Chicago journalist, reports that one South Side liquor store sells 2,700 lottery tickets a day when the state jackpot reaches $20 million.

At the end of the century, with the weed of pessimism growing in profusion in the national garden, gambling may be for many people a fatalistic assertion of the belief that most of life is luck. ... Life is to a significant extent a lottery won or lost at conception, so one might as well roll the dice as life rolls along.

The pursuit of wealth without work is not new to this vale of tears. However, to the extent that "players" regard gambling not as play but as a utilitarian activity, and one tinged with despair or desperation, the proliferation of gambling is deeply depressing.

Gambler's Anonymous material to help identify problem gamblers. A major factor is denial. They bet when they are losing to recoup losses, and bet when they win to win bigger. The average gambler who seeks help is in debt $41,000.

Will Christians reclaim the high ground in a battle to fight America's 'recreational pastime'? When gambling broke out of the glitter ghettos of Las Vegas and Atlantic City in the late 1970s, it began a long and successful march into nearly every state and many local communities, racking up surprising victories and cowing opponents.

Gambling has advanced so swiftly that until recently there were few national organizations devoted to opposing it. Instead, antigambling activists have toiled in isolation and with little national fundraising to combat the gambling industry's estimated $35 billion in revenues.

Now, however, the sparkle has worn off some of the early promises made by gambling industry promoters, and Christians are attempting to bear witness to the failed predictions for gambling's abilities to bring true prosperity: Antigambling leaders had predicted crime would rise due to casino gambling, and it has. Las Vegas and Atlantic City have two of the nation's highest crime rates. In Biloxi, Mississippi, a regional casino hot spot, armed robberies doubled from 1992 to 1993.

Christians warned that underage gamblers would be insufficiently policed. A 1992 report by Chicago's Better Government Association (BGA) estimates that 7 million juveniles gamble in the United States. In the northeastern part of the country, as many as 80 percent of high-school students reported gambling for money in a one-year period.

Antigambling activists cautioned that the burden of lotteries and other gambling methods would fall disproportionately on the poor. Low-income households have quickly become heavier users of state lotteries than the wealthy. The gambling industry is developing new ways to attract the moderate-income gambler with entertainment and by installing easy-to-use slot machines.

Nevertheless, gambling, once roundly condemned not only by church leaders, but by societal leaders as well, is now widely accepted and available, often with state governments promoting and benefiting from lotteries. Today, Utah and Hawaii are the only states that do not permit gambling of any kind.

The proliferation and acceptance of gambling has been explosive:

* The amount Americans wager each year has grown from $17.3 billion in 1976 to $329.9 billion in 1992, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling.

* Organized gambling has crossed over into “family-oriented” entertainment. Las Vegas has been in the forefront, hoping to gain new customers as it loses its dominance in gambling. At the MGM Grand, billed as the world's largest “hotel, casino, and theme park,” parents and children can visit 33 acres of rides, shows, themed streets, restaurants, shops, and casinos.

* The race to conquer new markets for gambling is shifting into high gear as the gaming industry saturates markets. Through much of 1994, as many as two casinos were opening each month in Mississippi. (Yet Gannett News Service reports that half of the casinos in Atlantic City are bankrupt, and half of the casinos in Nevada are operating with a 3 percent profit margin.)

* Gaming Entertainment television (GETV), a Pittsburgh-based cable television network, offers viewers a broad range of gambling activities. The network hopes to have nearly 3 million subscribers by the end of the century.

In some cases, social problems have already begun dogging the footsteps of gambling operations. There are unemployment and money woes, for example: The closing of Mhoon Landing casino in Mississippi, only one year after it opened, will throw almost 1,000 people out of work. It is the second casino operated by the same company to close this year. From a survey of its callers, the Texas Council on Problem and Compulsive Gambling reports 59 percent of compulsive gamblers have financial problems, 29 percent are addicted to alcohol, and 25 percent are unemployed.

THE LAST GOOD WAR

In some ways, gambling is the last agreed-upon sin for many Christians. Denominations that disagree vehemently over abortion, female pastors, and capital punishment nonetheless unite to oppose betting. The reason may be straightforward-people work together to rebuff attacks on their community-but some observers see the unusual unanimity as a sign of the deterioration of the culture.

“That's the terrifying part of it for me,” says Eugene Winkler, senior pastor of downtown Chicago's First United Methodist Church/Chicago Temple. “When you trace the history of just the Methodist part of this, we have stood against all of these immoral forms throughout our history, and we have yielded over and over again, and we've just acquiesced. I think this is kind of the last moral crusade for us.”

In the long run, he believes the pendulum will swing back toward outlawing gambling when its negative effects become too large to ignore. “I don't think there's any doubt we are in a state of moral decay that is growing, eating away at the body politic in America,” says Winkler.

Historically, the current struggle between gambling entrepreneurs and religious leaders reprises a similar struggle in the nineteenth century, which had its own fights over gambling and lotteries.

Marvin Olasky, professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and a senior fellow at the Capital Research Center in Washington, D.C., notes that the “Boston Recorder” did more than just run sermons against gambling in the nineteenth century. “It [covered] particular people who had gambled and lost everything. They gave a face to the issue.” Politicians of early America also tried to dissuade gamblers.

“Now, probably the opposite is the case,” Olasky says, “because we have our government leaders promoting state lotteries, and you have journalists very often winking at it.”

Though churches may have fairly broad agreement that gambling is harmful to individuals and to society, few place it at the top of their church's crowded agendas. Nonetheless, Olasky suggests that people from different denominations who represent different theologies can work together against gambling without compromising doctrinal stands.

Winkler agrees. “The church cannot keep yielding moral ground and expect to be any force for good in society.” He says gambling foes must “make the government do what it promises to do when it licenses [casinos], and that is to control them.”

To Tom Grey, spokesman for the National Coalition Against Organized Gambling, the mix of big money politics suggests a disgrace of major proportions is coming. “You think the savings and loan was a scandal,” he says. “Wait until the gambling thing hits on how government sold us to Las Vegas.”

RAISING THE STAKES

Determination is increasing on both sides of the battle lines as the gambling industry undergoes severe growing pains.

In this mix of events, wartime terminology comes easily to gambling opponents. Not content to be on the defensive, they have initiated an aggressive offense. Grey, a United Methodist minister from Galena, Illinois, recounts a meeting he had with a gambling industry leader who told him,

“ 'We have Las Vegas in the west, Atlantic City in the east, New Orleans in the south, now we want Chicago for the head of the cross.’ I'm sitting there, saying, 'We'll deny you Chicago.’ “

“This thing dies in the Midwest,” Grey vows. “Ten years from now, they'll write the story that in the heartland of America, it got turned back.”

As a longtime antigambling activist, Grey has had the opportunity to view the tactics of gambling proponents, who promise cash-strapped cities easy money.

Gambling companies “used to come in in parades, with governors cutting ribbons. Now they have to fight their way in, they have to bribe their way in,” Grey says. “We are breaking the invincibility of their advance.”

Fresh from a handful of recent successes (see “Showdown in Blackhawk County,” p. 60), Grey is taking his fight nationwide through the National Coalition Against Organized Gambling.

The coalition formed in May, following the successful rebuff of a lottery referendum in Oklahoma. A group of antigambling activists, members of a wide range of faith groups-from Unitarians to Christian Coalition activists to United Methodists to Muslims-met in Chicago to create the organization. The group shares tactics and information, helping to transform a series of local skirmishes into a nationwide movement.

Two years ago, Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved riverboat gambling, but, due to a mistake in the wording of the bill, games of chance were not allowed. Progambling forces pushed through another referendum, this time to be decided two days after Easter this year. Grey saw a chance to “steal” a victory and traveled to Missouri, where he hooked up with conservative businessman Mark Andrews. Grey then put together a coalition of conservative and liberal Christians to defeat the referendum.

“We had no money; we generated a movement,” says Grey. “The Right already had phone banks and was already working on this. The mainline churches hadn't really done a thing. So what happened was that God gave us this incredible victory.” Out of a million votes, the referendum failed by 1,261.

A MATTER OF SOVEREIGNTY?

Despite those recent victories, antigambling activists are facing a battle zone with dozens of frontlines. The 1988 passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act made it possible for Native American groups to run reservation-based gambling operations, which have become extremely profitable and are spread nationwide.

Paul G. Jones, executive director of the Christian Action Commission of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, reports that one local Native American tribe in his state already has a 24-hour casino on its reservation and is trying to buy land along the Mississippi River shoreline. This bid is leading some to challenge whether land purchased by a tribe becomes part of the reservation-and thus open to gambling-or is merely tribal-owned land, one of many new questions raised by gaming's spread.

“In a period of twelve-and-a-half years, it's gone from no legalized gambling in the state to all kinds of legalized gambling,” Jones says. He says charitable bingo, legalized in 1987, “has been a total disaster,” requiring the state to change the law several times to fix loopholes. “There are still some groups out there that have some of the strangest reasons for operating as a charitable organization.”

For many Native American groups, faced with high rates of alcoholism, unemployment, and suicide, the promise of big profits from gambling has been quickly embraced. Native American activists suggest that the way to dissuade tribes from pursuing reservation gaming is to offer economic alternatives. Huron Claus, a Mohawk and discipleship coordinator for Christian Hope Indian Eskimo Fellowship (chief) in Phoenix, says Christians need to examine why Native Americans are attracted to gambling's profits. Gambling has caused some tribes to grapple with the cultural impact of sudden wealth and the presence of casino workers from outside the tribe, sometimes outnumbering the entire tribe.

“The real issue is: How do we deal with the gambling?” Claus says. “There needs to be a call to the Christian leadership on a tribal level and a church level. There are few Christians in tribal leadership; they need to be role models in their tribes.” Claus does not support reservation gambling and he urges Christians to develop businesses that offer healthy alternatives to Indians. Claus also notes that it is an opportunity to share the gospel: of the 2 million Native Americans in about 500 different tribes, he says fewer than 8 percent are professing Christians.

ON CAPONE'S HOME TURF

Perhaps the nation's most-watched gambling skirmish is in Chicago, where Mayor Richard M. Daley has sought for years to introduce casino gambling, first in land-based form and now on riverboats. Casino gambling remains stalled in the state government, not so much because of church pressure but because of the strength of the racing industry, which fears the loss of gaming dollars to 24-hour casinos.

After rural horseracing interests teamed up with state Republican lawmakers-as well as some religious activists-to defeat land-based casinos in 1992, gambling forces came back with a proposal for a downtown entertainment complex with a riverboat casino.

“It'll be essentially what they tried to get land-based,” says Winkler. “The riverboat is just going to go about 100 yards and come back. It's subterfuge.”

One of the greatest fears of casino opponents has been the corruption of public officials. J. T. Brunner, staff director of the Chicago Metro Ethics Coalition Project, charged in 1992 that his organization's investigation of the effort to bring casino gambling to Chicago “was complicated by a high degree of misinformation filtered to the general public by individuals and organizations which had already taken a position on the issue.... Our academic research confirmed that many of the proponents' claims were highly questionable.”

In its 1992 white paper, “Casino Gambling in Chicago,” the BGA's claimed that irregularities had occurred in the city's study and promotion of casino gambling. In his introduction to the study, Brunner, who also serves as BGA executive director, wrote, “The accounting firm who supposedly ran objective projections for the Mayor's Committee has joined them, appearing as an advocate at the Mayor's press conferences.”

In discussing the proposed job gains caused by casinos, Brunner writes: “It is interesting that the proponents didn't suggest the alternate sales pitch, social gains from additional revenues. One may understand this by examining their public-relation documents, 'Jewel in the Crown' and 'P.R. Battle Plan,' in which they found that Chicagoans simply don't believe that additional money will effectively cure social problems because of the Atlantic City experience and our own experience with the lottery.”

LONE-STAR BATTLEGROUND

Weston Ware, associate director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, believes Christians need to be more vocal about the spread of gambling. “When you look at Atlantic City, their success is still very questionable,” says Ware, who estimates that he has testified on every piece of gambling legislation before the Texas legislature since 1982. “It was a slum by the sea. And now, it's a slum by the sea with casinos.”

Ware says the clout of churches and individual Christians is in their ability to deal with the issue locally. “The power that we have in lobbying the legislature has to do not with some individual that's recognized as representing the churches,” Ware says. “The power has to do with the persons back home who know and supported or have worked with legislators over time. That legislator has to feel that he is being held accountable and responsible by individuals at the local level.”

Texas, which does not have casino gambling, does have a state lottery, charitable bingo, and dog- and horse-racing tracks. When Texas adopted the lottery, it also agreed to print on every lottery ticket the number for a hotline for compulsive gamblers. The state gives the hotline - run by the Texas Council on Problem Gambling - $575,000 to spread awareness of problem gambling.

If proponents succeed in legalizing casino gambling, Texas may have as many as 25 casinos, says Sue Cox, executive director of the council and a former activist against gambling. She fears that if casinos are legalized, the total number of problem gamblers may not grow dramatically, but people playing bingo will shift to slot machines, and those who are betting on sports will also patronize casinos. “Because casinos offer the opportunity to lose money more quickly on a 24-hour basis than do other games, the degree of the problem will grow.”

To Cox, the problem with churches is that they do not continue their activism once the casinos are in place. As a resource person who has only received one call from a church for assistance, she says churches have failed to show compassion and offer help to compulsive gamblers and their family members. Cox recommends that churches gather information on gaming-stocking their libraries with books on compulsive gambling-and minister to problem gamblers either through small groups on compulsive gambling or at least an all-purpose addiction support group.

“It's easy to have sympathy with the family,” Cox says. “It's very difficult for many believers to have sympathy with the gambler.”

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Copyright (c) 1994 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY Magazine

#3658

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The "Casino of the Kings" has everything a gambler could want: poker, roulette, slot machines and more -- twenty-four hours a day. What's more, you can gamble the day away without even getting dressed. "The Casino of Kings" is one of more than 300 Internet gambling sites -- sites that demolish what few barriers remain between a casino and a gambler's money.

In less than three years, the number of Internet gambling sites has gone from fifteen to more than 300. Last year, an estimated 14 million people bet $651 million on the World Wide Web.

Government officials are concerned because operations such as The Casino of Kings, which is based in the Caribbean, operate outside the reach of state and federal regulators. An American placing a bet at one of these sites has no recourse if, for example, the operator refuses to pay when the customer wins.

And, of course, government officials have a less altruistic reason not to like Internet gambling: A dollar bet online is a dollar that's NOT being bet at one of America's many state-sponsored gambling venues, where states get a cut of the profits.

Well, the government may be worried about money, but Christians ought to be more concerned about how Internet gambling removes another inconvenience that used to stand between citizens and vice.

National Public Radio commentator David Salish recently drew an analogy between online gambling and online pornography. As Salish noted, it used to be that boys who wanted to buy a copy of "Playboy" had to deal with the disapproving glance of the store clerk. That inconvenience could be a powerful deterrent. Nowadays, boys can privately peruse much worse pornography on-line -- for free.

Likewise, anyone who wanted to gamble had to at least take the trouble of getting into his car and driving somewhere, often out of state. This inconvenience probably stopped a lot of people from gambling. Not anymore. Now you can gamble away your savings from the comfort of home.

The lesson here is that part of discouraging people from engaging in foolish behavior is making that behavior difficult. In fact, this is one of the essential functions of law. The Christian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas taught that man has a natural aptitude to act morally, but his aptitude must be trained. That training occurs through social conventions, the threat of shame, and the threat of punishment for immoral conduct.

When it comes to discouraging Internet gambling, a good place to start is to get behind legislative proposals, including those being considered right now in Congress, that would require Internet service providers like America Online to block access to these overseas gambling sites.

Critics argue that technology will make it almost impossible to enforce such laws -- that if a site cannot be accessed through AOL, operators will find another way to make the site accessible.

That may be true. But the inconvenience involved may keep some people from gambling on a whim. And that's why Christians should support laws curbing internet gambling.

Because even if our neighbor is bent on ruining his life through gambling, loving him means, at the very least, making sure he has to get out of his bathrobe to do it.

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Copyright (c) 1999 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

*

William Bennett, the former Cabinet secretary and family values campaigner, is a high-rolling gambler who has lost millions over the past decade, according to published reports.

Casino documents show Bennett is a “preferred customer” in at least four venues in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, Newsweek and The Washington Monthly reported in stories posted Friday on the web. His favorite games: video poker and slot machines. He has a revolving line of credit of at least $200,000 at each casino, the magazines said.

The former drug policy director and education secretary under Republican presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush doesn't have to have money when he shows up at a casino, according to the magazines, which obtained internal casino documents.

Bennett, who wrote “The Book of Virtues,” gets high-roller treatment, including limos and tens of thousands of dollars in complimentary hotel rooms and other amenities.

In one two-month period, the documents show him wiring more than $1.4 million to cover losses at one casino. In one 18-month stretch, Bennett visited a number of casinos for two or three days at a time.

Some of his losses have been substantial. According to one casino source, on July 12, 2002, Bennett lost $340,000 at Caesars in Atlantic City and on April 5 and 6 he lost more than $500,000 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Some casino estimates put his total losses over the past decade at more than $8 million.

When reached by Newsweek, Bennett acknowledged he gambles.

“Over 10 years, I'd say I've come out pretty close to even,” he said. “You can roll up and down a lot in one day, as we have on many occasions. You may cycle several hundred thousand dollars in an evening and net out only a few thousand.”

During an 18-month period, documents show there were only a few occasions when Bennett turned in chips - worth about $30,000 or $40,000 - at the end of an evening.

“I play fairly high stakes. I adhere to the law. I don't play the ‘milk money.’ I don't put my family at risk, and I don't owe anyone anything,” Bennett said. The documents didn't contradict his points.

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[Version by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 5/3/03 ]

William Bennett reportedly lost millions gambling

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE, New York Times

William J. Bennett, author of “The Book of Virtues” and one of the nation's most relentless moral crusaders, is a high-rolling gambler who has lost more than $8 million at casinos in the last decade, according to online reports from two magazines.

The Washington Monthly said on its website that “over the last decade Bennett has made dozens of trips to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a 'preferred customer' at several of them, and sources and documents provided to The Washington Monthly put his total losses at more than $8 million.”

In an article that depends on much the same reporting, the online version of Newsweek said that 40 pages of internal casino documents show that Bennett received treatment typical of high-stakes gamblers, including limousines and “tens of thousands of dollars in complimentary hotel rooms and other amenities.”

Bennett declined to be interviewed Friday by The New York Times, with a spokesman saying that he needed to digest the articles before responding.

The fact of Bennett's gambling is not new. He has said over the years that he likes to gamble and that it relaxes him. What is unusual is the apparent extent of his losses; neither magazine reported his winnings.

Bennett told the magazines that he has basically broken even over the years.

“I play fairly high stakes,” he said, but added: “I don't put my family at risk, and I don't owe anyone anything.”

The magazines said they had no documentation that he was in debt but suggested that he had lost more than he had won. In response, Bennett is quoted as saying, “I've made a lot of money and I've won a lot of money,” adding, “You don't see what I walk away with.” He said he gave some of his winnings to charity and reported everything to the Internal Revenue Service.

The magazines said that in one two-month period, Bennett wired one casino more than $1.4 million to cover his losses.

The magazines said he earns $50,000 for each appearance in speaking fees on the lecture circuit, where he inveighs against various sins, weaknesses and vices of modern culture.

But Bennett exempts gambling from this list.

He has said in the past that he does not consider gambling a moral issue. When his interviewers reminded him of studies that link heavy gambling with a variety of societal and family ills, Bennett said he did not have a problem himself and likened gambling to drinking alcohol.

“I view it as drinking,” he said. “If you can't handle it, don't do it.”

Bennett is popular among social conservatives, but many of them consider gambling a serious problem. James C. Dobson, the president of Focus on the Family and a member of a federal commission that studied gambling, said in 1999: “Gambling fever now threatens the work ethic and the very foundation of the family. Thirty years ago, gambling was widely understood in the culture to be addictive, progressive and dangerous.”

During the 1990s, leaders of the conservative Christian Coalition joined with other religious leaders to create the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition, called gambling “a cancer on the American body politic” that was “stealing food from the mouths of children.”

Friends of Bennett were reluctant Friday to criticize him directly.

“It's his own money and his own business,” said Grover G. Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative advocacy group. “The downside of gambling losses is that the government gets a third of the money, which is unfortunate and probably a sin in and of itself,” said Norquist, whose group advocates smaller government.

William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard and another conservative ally of Bennett, agreed that this was a matter between Bennett, his wife and his accountant.

“It would be different if he had written anti-gambling screeds,” Kristol said. “I'm sure he doesn't regard gambling as a virtue but rather as a rather minor and pardonable vice and a legal one and one that has not damaged him or anyone else.”

Kristol said that Bennett was not being hypocritical. “If Bill Bennett went on TV encouraging young people to gamble the rent money at a Las Vegas casino or was shilling for gambling interests, that would be inconsistent” with his moral crusades, Kristol said.

As Bennett told The Las Vegas Review-Journal in 1995, “I've played poker all my life and I shouldn't be on my high horse about it.”

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Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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"The Bookie of Virtue"

William J. Bennett spends his life promoting morality -- but also has a huge gambling habit, by Joshua Green in The Washington Monthly.

We should know that too much of anything, even a good thing, may prove to be our undoing...[We] need ... to set definite boundaries on our appetites.”

-- The Book of Virtues, by William J. Bennett

No person can be more rightly credited with making morality and personal responsibility an integral part of the political debate than William J. Bennett. For more than 20 years, as a writer, speaker, government official, and political operative, Bennett has been a commanding general in the culture wars. As Ronald Reagan's chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, he was the scourge of academic permissiveness. As drug czar under George H.W. Bush, he applied a get-tough approach to drug use, arguing that individuals have a moral responsibility to own up to their addiction.

Upon leaving public office, Bennett wrote “The Book of Virtues,” a compendium of parables snatched up by millions of parents and teachers across the political spectrum. Bennett's crusading ideals have been adopted by politicians of both parties, and implemented in such programs as character education classes in public schools -- a testament to his impact. During the impeachment of Bill Clinton, Bennett was among the president's most unrelenting detractors. His book, The Death of Outrage, decried, among other things, the public's failure to take Clinton's sins more seriously.

His best-selling “The Book of Virtues” spawned an entire cottage industry, from children's books to merchandizing tie-ins to a PBS cartoon series. Bennett commands $50,000 per appearance on the lecture circuit and has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from such conservative benefactors as the Scaife and John M. Olin foundations.

There is one vice, however, that has largely escaped Bennett's wrath: gambling. This is a notable omission, since on this issue morality and public policy are deeply intertwined. If Bennett hasn't spoken out more forcefully on an issue that would seem tailor-made for him, perhaps it's because he is himself a heavy gambler. The Washington Monthly and Newsweek have learned that over the last decade Bennett has made dozens of trips to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a “preferred customer” at several of them.

Bennett has been a high-roller since at least the early 1990s. A review of one 18-month stretch of gambling showed him visiting casinos, often for two or three days at a time (and enjoying a line of credit of at least $200,000 at several of them). The documents show that in one two-month period, Bennett wired more than $1.4 million to cover losses.

On July 12 of last year, Bennett lost $340,000 at Caesar's Boardwalk Regency in Atlantic City. And just three weeks ago, on April 5 and 6, he lost more than $500,000 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. “There's a term in the trade for this kind of gambler,” says a casino source who has witnessed Bennett at the high-limit slots in the wee hours. “We call them losers.”

Bennett likes to be discreet. “He'll usually call a host and let us know when he's coming,” says one source. “We can limo him in. He prefers the high-limit room, where he's less likely to be seen and where he can play the $500-a-pull slots. He usually plays very late at night or early in the morning -- usually between midnight and 6 a.m.” His desire for privacy is evident in his customer profile at one casino, which lists as his residence the address for Empower.org (the Web site of Empower America, the non-profit group Bennett co-chairs). Typed across the form are the words: “NO CONTACT AT RES OR BIZ!!!”

Bennett's gambling has not totally escaped public notice. In 1999, The Washington Times reported that Bennett had been spotted at the new Mirage Resorts Bellagio casino in Las Vegas, where he was reputed to have won a $200,000 jackpot. Bennett admitted to the Times that he had visited the casino, but denied winning $200,000. Documents show that, in fact, he won a $25,000 jackpot on that visit -- but left the casino down $625,000.

Asked by Newsweek columnist and Washington Monthly contributing editor Jonathan Alter to comment on the reports, Bennett admitted that he gambles but not that he has ended up behind. “I play fairly high stakes. I adhere to the law. I don't play the 'milk money.’ I don't put my family at risk, and I don't owe anyone anything.” The documents offer no reason to contradict Bennett on these points. Bennett claims he's beaten the odds: “Over 10 years, I'd say I've come out pretty close to even.”

“You can roll up and down a lot in one day, as we have on many occasions,” Bennett explains. “You may cycle several hundred thousand dollars in an evening and net out only a few thousand.”

“I've made a lot of money [in book sales, speaking fees and other business ventures] and I've won a lot of money,” adds Bennett. “When I win, I usually give at least a chunk of it away [to charity]. I report everything to the IRS.”

[As of Friday, Emower America had not issued any comment.]

The documents show only a few occasions when he turns in chips worth $30,000 or $40,000 at the end of an evening. Most of the time, he draws down his line of credit, often substantially. A casino source, hearing of Bennett's claim to breaking even on slots over 10 years, just laughed.

“You don't see what I walk away with,” Bennett says. “They [casinos] don't want you to see it.”

Explaining his approach, Bennett says: “I've been a 'machine person' [slot machines and video poker]. When I go to the tables, people talk -- and they want to talk about politics. I don't want that. I do this for three hours to relax.” He says he was in Las Vegas in April for dinner with the former governor of Nevada and gambled while he was there.

Bennett says he has made no secret of his gambling. “I've gambled all my life and it's never been a moral issue with me. I liked church bingo when I was growing up. I've been a poker player.”

Despite his personal appetites, Bennett and his organization, Empower America, oppose the extension of casino gambling in the states. In a recent editorial, his Empower America co-chair Jack Kemp inveighed against lawmakers who “pollute our society with a slot machine on every corner.” The group recently published an Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, with an introduction written by Bennett, that reports 5.5 million American adults as “problem” or “pathological” gamblers. Bennett says he is neither because his habit does not disrupt his family life.

When reminded of studies that link heavy gambling to divorce, bankruptcy, domestic abuse, and other family problems he has widely decried, Bennett compared the situation to alcohol.

“I view it as drinking,” Bennett says. “If you can't handle it, don't do it.” Bennett is a wealthy man and may be able to handle losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Of course, as the nation's leading spokesman on virtue and personal responsibility, Bennett's gambling complicates his public role. Moreover, it has already exacted a cost. Like him or hate him, William Bennett is one of the few public figures with a proven ability to influence public policy by speaking out. By furtively indulging in a costly vice that destroys millions of lives and families across the nation, Bennett has profoundly undermined the credibility of his word on this moral issue.

=========================================

And now a word from the pro-gamblers:

"VIRTUES, VALUES AND VEGAS," commentary by James McManus for The New York Times

“Virtue Is as Virtue Does?” reads a headline in the current issue of Newsweek. The Washington Monthly Online puts a similar story under the heading “The Bookie of Virtue.” The reporters Jonathan Alter and Joshua Green, in a joint effort by the publications, explain that the conservative author William Bennett likes to gamble and “speaks out, often indignantly, about almost every moral issue except one — gambling.”

The implication here is that playing high-stakes video poker makes Mr. Bennett a hypocrite. And on top of it, he's a “loser” too, according to one unnamed “casino source”; the reports cite “casino estimates” putting his total losses over the past decade at more than $8 million. The authors also note that he accepts the “high-roller treatment” at casinos, including free limousines and hotel rooms.

The fact is, the perks that so-called whales like Mr. Bennett enjoy are hardly free or unearned — they're paid for, and then some, because the house's statistical edge guarantees that such gamblers (as a group) will give back a least that much in the long run. More important, the authors admit that it's impossible for them to determine whether Mr. Bennett's in the black or the red as a player. If he has legally put $8 million in play over the course of a decade, it's not the same as risking that amount, let alone losing it, in a weekend.

Playing slot machines, blackjack or video poker may involve cycling a few hundred thousand into action, but for practical purposes a gambler is risking only a small fraction of that amount, since no one loses every spin or hand. A player is “taking the worst of it” by a only few percentage points. And I think a guy who earns $1,000 a minute giving speeches (and plenty more writing books) has just as much right to play high 21 as a guy on a pension who makes a couple of weekly Lotto quick picks.

Mr. Bennett now says his “gambling days are over.” I wish he had toughed it out like another celebrity who faced similar “gotcha” journalism. When Michael Jordan went to Atlantic City to play late-night blackjack for stakes he could easily afford during the 1993 playoffs, he was taken to task by several reporters. He needed more sleep, they complained; he should have been concentrating on splitting Knick double-teams, not on whether to double down with nine against eight, or to split sixes when the dealer is showing one too. Mr. Jordan made clear he could manage both tasks with aplomb, and that he didn't appreciate sportswriters peeping resentfully into his personal life.

For some people, however, betting pennies on tiddlywinks or 10 bucks on Pick 4 constitutes a “gambling problem.” They sniff that gamblers are venal because “they want something for nothing.” Yeah, well, of course we do. Players and nonplayers alike get aced out of cherished, indispensable things all the time and get zip in return, so it seems only reasonable to want to balance the equation a little.

All of us gamble. Air travel, dating, investments, education, even driving or walking to work are not for the risk-averse. Vastly more is at stake when conceiving a child than when Mr. Bennett plays video poker, yet married couples are treated to no finger-jabbing sermons when they roll the dice on reproduction. As a finger-jabber himself on some subjects, Mr. Bennett should perhaps be more alert to such ironies. Still, if he pays his taxes and abides by the law, we should keep our noses out of his personal life.

After a recent speech in Rochester, Mr. Bennett was asked what the chances were of his running for president in 2008. He responded by saying that he might enter the World Series of Poker instead. He was only half serious, I gather; his purpose was probably to stir more presidential conjecture while manfully ducking the question. But perhaps Mr. Bennett should try the real deal. The $10,000 entry fee for the championship event would appear to fall comfortably within the parameters of his bankroll. But is the God-fearing author of “Why We Fight” and editor of “Our Sacred Honor” up to this challenge?

God may play dice with the universe, despite Einstein's hope, but serious gamblers prefer no-limit Texas hold 'em, and they scoff at video poker and blackjack. Live poker strategy is the American way. Nothing bears this out more succinctly than illustrating our attack on Saddam Hussein's regime with a Most Wanted poker deck — unless it's Martin Sheen dealing draw on “The West Wing.”

Harry Truman, playing marathon sessions between momentous decisions as commander in chief, was accused by a reporter of “running a straight stud filibuster against his own secretary of state.” Richard Nixon won enough playing cards in the Navy to help finance his first run for Congress. As one of his professors at Whittier College pointed out, “A man who couldn't hold a hand in a first-class poker game is not fit to be president of the United States.” This may be a terrifying notion for some of us, but it's one that we all should face up to, Mr. Bennett included.

__________

James McManus is author of “Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs and Binion's World Series of Poker.” Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

*

[This illustration replaces a previous one]

Congratulations, You Won the Lottery!

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA. Valencia Mueller stops at Wagner's Food Pride and buys a single lottery ticket. She wins. "I had trouble catching my breath," she says. "This only happens in dreams or in the movies, not in real life." I think she overreacted.

Even if Valencia Mueller had won the ultimate payoff against odds of 54,979,I55 to one, it would have been no big deal, because Valencia had already won a much bigger lottery against much greater odds. Valencia Mueller had been born.

I asked Ryan J. Sokol of the statistics department at Texas A&M University to calculate the odds of a specific individual being born. Ryan estimated the total number of fertile men and women in the world, calculated the number of different genetic possibilities a man might contribute, adjusted for the number of hours of female fertility each month, then factored in a long list of other considerations. The bottom line of Ryan's lengthy report to me said, "The chance that you, meaning exactly you, would be born are I in I.3 times ten to the twenty-ninth power." In other words, I30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to one. You and I my friend, are two incredibly, amazingly, lucky people. We both won the genetic lottery!

Compared with the odds against being born, the odds are very good that you will be elected president of the United States. You have already won a lottery more amazing than human-kind could ever devise. You have already been awarded a prize far richer than anything the world has to give. You are alive. You are here. Make the most of it.

The finger of God never leaves identical fingerprints. -Stanislaus Lec

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. And before you were born I consecrated you. "Do not be afraid, For I am with you to deliver you," declares the lord. --Jeremiah 1: 5 & 8

4-89 A man mortgages his

house to buy $9,000 worth of lottery tickets in a 100 million dollar pot. Some Christians do more foolish things than that.

Court Battle Looms in Lottery Prize

Court Battle Looms in Lottery Prize By GARRY MITCHELL= Associated Press Writer=

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) _ Tonda Dickerson gave her Waffle House customers plenty of coffee refills, and one of them rewarded her with a Florida lottery ticket.

Not a bad tip. It turned out to be worth $10 million.

But then she turned in her apron without sharing the jackpot with four co-workers who also got lottery tickets as tips. The four sued her and claimed she had ignored their agreement to divide any winnings equally _ meaning $2 million for each.

Mrs. Dickerson, 28, said there had been no such deal. She then turned down a settlement offer that would have given her $3 million and let the other four split the rest.

So instead of moving from her mobile home on Monday, the former waitress was in court. Her Waffle House co-workers testified there was a share-the-wealth plan and that in conversations around the hot grill they often discussed how they would spend the money.

“It was always stated that if we hit, we split,” one of the four co-workers, Matthew Adams, told the jury.

Mobile County Circuit Judge Robert Kendall said the jury's verdict, expected Tuesday, will be an advisory one. The judge will make the final decision on whether the money must be divided. Florida officials are holding the money in the meantime.

Voters in Alabama will decide this year whether the state should have a lottery. In the meantime, lottery dealers in Florida do a brisk business with Alabama customers like Edward Seward Jr., the Waffle House customer from Bayou La Batre who gave away the lottery tickets.

Seward ate breakfast daily with family members at the Waffle House in Grand Bay, on the Alabama coast. On March 7, he handed out tickets to five servers _ Mrs. Dickerson, Adams, Sandra Deno, Angela Tisdale and Jackie Fairley.

Seward, 41, is a former restaurant manager who is partially paralyzed on his right side from a stroke. He has said he only wanted a new truck out of the lottery winnings and expected the restaurant employees to share any winnings. He declined requests for interviews and sat huddled with relatives in court on Monday.

The co-workers' attorney, Steve Clements, said the case was about telling the truth and the “corrupting influence of money.”

Mrs. Dickerson's lawyer, Dwight Reid, accused the co-workers of cooking up a “nefarious scheme” to claim part of the money. Besides, he said, there was no written contract to divide the money, and he said Alabama law requires such a document.

Mrs. Dickerson said she wants to use the lottery money to build a new home on her father's six acres of property near the Alabama-Mississippi border, where she now lives in a mobile home with her husband and 9-year-old son.

A recent article concerning America’s out-of-control fascination with gambling says: “Every dollar collected from legalized gambling for taxes cost taxpayers from $3 to $7 to collect and for every job created by gambling activities, the rest of the economy will lose two jobs.”

________

“Gambling cost dollars, jobs,” The Baptist Standard Newsmagazine of Texas Baptists, 2 March, 1994, 4

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

| My Source:

| THE PADUCAH SUN, Editorial Page

| Friday, March 5, 1999

|------------------------------

| Author: Jim Paxton

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

GAMBLING ADDICT

by Jim Paxton, Editor

Kentucky Must Break Dependence on Lottery...

Revenues from the state lottery are beginning to level off, leaving Kentucky Lottery officials scrambling to find new ways to separate citizens from their hard-earned money. This is the latest evidence of what might be called the "cycle of addiction" that afflicts many states that decide to bolster their budgets with profits from gambling.

Initially, there is a huge influx of cash, creating euphoria in state government; then the revenue starts to level off or decline, forcing officials to seek a new "fix" through increased lottery advertising or new games of chance. Finally, elected officials drop all inhibitions about promoting gambling, and basically turn the government's revenue-raising arm into the equivalent of a slot machine.

Kentucky appears to be entering the second phase of this insidious cycle. The state lottery is 10 years old now, and its novelty is wearing off. Officials predict that, for the first time in the lottery's history, sales will be flat this year.

In the past decade, legal gambling has exploded across the country as state and local governments, seeking to take advantage of this so-called voluntary form of taxation, have approved lotteries, casinos, video poker, and other forms of gambling once considered harmful to the work ethic and the social fabric of communities.

All but three states now have some form of legalized gambling. With the aid of government "gaming" is rapidly becoming the national pastime, taking in more than $200 billion annually.

This means that the competition for gambling dollars is growing more intense. If states want to keep raking in the cash from the voluntary tax, they have to use advertising and promotion to recruit new gamblers, or make gambling even more accessible to the general public by setting up various types of video gaming devices in convenience stores, restaurants, and bars.

One of the more famous--or infamous--examples of government promotion of gambling occurred in the nation's capital. District of Columbia lottery officials put up billboards in poor neighborhoods urging residents to live their dreams of striking it rich by playing the lottery.

Of course, the billboards didn't inform these poor dreamers that they had a better chance of being struck by lightning than of winning a large lotto jackpot. Consumer protection laws usually don't cover government-sponsored gambling.

Kentucky Lottery officials are dealing with the inevitable drop-off in betting by adding midday drawings. But they concede this probably won't be enough to feed the state's revenue addiction. Citing their mandate to make as much money for the state as possible, lottery officials want the General Assembly to consider adding new, casino-style games.

"We do have to look for new and innovative ways to keep our revenue up," Rick Redman, spokesman for the Kentucky Lottery Corp., told the Associated Press.

Lawmakers need to ask themselves if using the lure of gambling to shake down citizens is a worthy task for government. Yes, it's easy money: Few people complain about losing money to the state playing the lottery, but a lot of people object to paying taxes.

Even so, state officials should ponder the price of preying on the weaknesses of citizens. The explosion of legalized gambling has added new chapters to Gamblers Anonymous all over the country. Studies show the poor and near-poor spend a much larger share of their incomes buying lottery tickets than middle-class players. Then there's the intangible social impact of government constantly urging people to put their faith in get-rich-quick games.

Legislators must soon decide whether it's really a good idea for the state to make as much money as possible from gambling. Their decision will tell us the degree of the state's addiction to gambling revenue.

My Source:

THE PADUCAH SUN, Volume 103, #165

June 15, 1999

\webpage{http://www.sunsix.com}

Author: Editorial--Jim Paxton

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

LESSER EVIL? Slot Machines not

preferable to casinos.

by Jim Paxton

Gov. Paul Patton has encountered major resistance to his idea of building more than a dozen casinos around the state, but it appears the gambling virus is mutating, taking on new and possibly even more destructive forms that may have a better chance of surviving public debate.

Key legislators are talking about legalizing electronic slot machines and keno games as alternatives to casino gambling. Their argument for expanded gambling is based in part on a false, either-or choice: The state can have the governor's glitzy casinos, or it can accept the proliferation of less obtrusive slot machines.

Sen. David Karem of Louisville told the COURIER-JOURNAL that the debate over casinos has made video lottery terminals, which he favors, "more palatable." Other lawmakers told the newspaper they see electronic slots as the lesser of two evils.

It hardly needs saying that lawmakers' sudden bid to stop casinos by promoting machine gambling reeks of cynicism. The question begs to be asked: What is compelling the legislature to approve the so-called lesser of two evils? It's not as if the commonwealth cannot survive without electronic slots or keno.

Why can't lawmakers reject a bad idea--legalizing casino gambling--without taking up one that's potentially worse--putting slot machines at race tracks and bars across the state?

The obvious answer is that some legislators are determined to get their hands on a new revenue source. These opportunistic leaders are hoping public opposition to their casinos will provide cover for their efforts to shake down the state's citizens with slot machines and keno.

Earlier this year Kentucky Lottery officials began lobbying for new forms of gambling to offset a projected decline in lottery proceeds. A report issued by the lottery predicted the state could rake in hundreds of millions of dollars by approving one of the following: keno games at lottery outlets around the state, slot machines at race tracks, or video lottery terminals in bars, liquor stores, and restaurants.

Controversy over Gov. Patton's casino gambling trial balloon temporarily obscured the machine gambling proposals, but they're re-emerging now that lawmakers have gauged public opposition to casinos.

It's strange that some legislators say they believe having slot machines at race tracks and bars and restaurants all over Kentucky is less objectionable than the presence of a dozen or so casinos.

Slot machines, video poker, and other forms of machine gambling tend to appeal more to low-income people than casinos or race track betting. Some studies have shown that readily accessible electronic devices draw more women and young people into compulsive or excessive gambling.

Nancy Jo Kemper, executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, bluntly described the dangers of machine gambling. "They are the slot machines that the little old ladies and the poor folks just dump the money in," she said.

A study recently conducted in South Carolina,

which has 31,000 video poker machines

located in bars, restaurants, and convenience

stores, found the annual social cost of the

gambling devices, including bankruptcies and

lost work days, totaled $171 million--almost

three times as much as the state gains from

taxes on the machines.

Like Kentucky, South Carolina is a relatively poor state. Even so, video poker operators there make an astonishing profit of more than $600 million a year.

There's no legitimate reason for Kentucky lawmakers to engage in this kind of predatory pursuit of the public's money. The state is running a healthy surplus and sitting on a large "rainy day" fund.

Machine gambling imposes a regressive and exploitative tax on vulnerable people. The General Assembly should follow its apparent inclination to reject the governor's casino idea, then trash any attempt to legalize keno, video lottery terminals, electronics slots, etc.

==================================================

DRL NOTE: I thought that the editorial above would be of interest to you who receive these mailings. I am thankful for those who reason in the way that this editor has and I stand opposed to the legislators in Frankfort who pose the "lesser of two evils" argument the article mentions. I hope you will pay particular attention to the paragraph which I set off from the others by indentation. I see this study result as ammunition to use in making a powerful argument against gambling when discussing it with those who are not impressed by biblical arguments. Legislators need to get the message: GAMBLING'S COSTS TO SOCIETY FAR OUTWEIGH THE REVENUE THAT IT BRINGS INTO THE STATE'S COFFERS!!! I hope you will be able to use the information to fight against this evil which is running rampant in the USA.

According to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission's (NGISC) 1999 report, a Harvard University study estimated that 15.4 million Americans were suffering from problem and pathological gambling. The federally commissioned study further noted that the gambling industry in the United States had grown tenfold since 1975.

Legal wagers are now recognized in 48 states, in such forms as casino or Internet gambling, lotteries, pari-mutuel betting or bingo. Gambling industry revenue now exceeds annual total receipts generated by the entertainment industry.

The National Council on Problem Gambling reports that:

• the suicide rate is 20 times higher for pathological gamblers.

• 47 percent of problem gamblers abuse alcohol.

• 46 percent of problem gamblers are depressed.

• up to 65 percent of pathological gamblers commit crimes to finance

their gambling.

• 11 percent of gamblers' wives commit suicide.

• 25 percent of children of pathological gamblers have significant

behavioral or adjustment problems.

The NGISC likewise reported that compulsive gambling often results in domestic and child abuse, divorce and family neglect. A domestic violence counselor from Harrison, Miss., testified that a local shelter reported a 300 percent increase in the number of requests for abuse intervention after the arrival of the casinos.

In fact, the 1999 report from the bipartisan commission appointed by Congress concluded that the effects of gambling were so devastating that “a national moratorium on gambling expansion” was needed.

And it appears the damaging effects of the gambling epidemic are an equal opportunity destroyer. Findings from a study by the Barna Research Group dismiss the common misperception that gambling is not a major issue for Christians and churches.

According to Barna, there are “no differences between the unchurched and the churched” when it comes to gambling activity. While Christians often have been warned about the dangers of gambling, “millions do so on a regular basis.” Astonishingly, 17 percent of born-again Christians have purchased a lottery ticket in the previous week, Barna reported.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #4486]

[This parable helps explain the preliminary success of the Enron corporation]

An old country farmer with serious financial problems bought a mule from another old farmer for $100, who agreed to deliver the mule the next day. However, the next day he drove up and said, "Sorry, but I have some bad news: The mule died."

"Well, then, just give me my money back."

"Can't do that. I went and spent it already."

"OK, then. Just unload the mule."

"What ya gonna do with a dead mule?"

"I'm going to raffle him off."

"You can't raffle off a dead mule!"

"Sure I can. I just won't tell anybody he's dead."

A month later the two met up and the farmer who sold the mule asked, "Whatever happened with that dead mule?"

"I raffled him off just like I said I would. I sold 500 tickets at $2 a piece and made a profit of $898."

"Didn't anyone complain?"

"Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back."

High near the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, stands a billboard decked with huge, black Letters, asking, “Lottery? W.W.J.D. What Would Jesus Do?”

The question must have hit the mark, because in the latest battle between the forces of gambling and the forces of God, against all odds, the Christians won. Don’t tell me The Church can’t transform our culture!

The battle began when gambling interests tried to bring a state-sponsored lottery to Alabama. Lottery tickets would have been sold alongside bread and milk at neighborhood convenience stores.

The lottery had the support of Alabama Governor Donald Siegelman. He promised it would bring in $150 million a year for education; polls and the result of last year’s election suggested the lottery had broad public support. But church leaders across the state didn’t buy it. They denounced the lottery as a tax on the poor, who are aggressively targeted by lottery marketing.

Christians mounted a fierce grassroots campaign, telling voters that it was morally wrong for the state to raise revenues in a way that would hurt so many people.

In the end, even though the gambling lobby outspent the champions of the poor by 4 to 1, Alabama voters rejected the lottery by a solid margin.

This victory is astonishing, because only a year ago, the gambling juggernaut seemed undefeatable. Not only in Alabama, but also in other states, such as South Carolina, where pro-gambling forces pumped millions of dollars into defeating Governor David Beasley, a Christian who had fought against the proliferation of gambling interests. The result: A pro-gambling governor was elected.

But now the tables have been turned. Earlier this year, South Carolina lawmakers voted to shut down the state’s 30,000 video poker machines–and, this month, the South Carolina Supreme Court backed them up. As one elated anti-gambling spokesman put it, in South Carolina, video poker is now “deader than Elvis.”

South Carolinians are now turning their sights on a referendum to legalize a state lottery. In fact, Christians, especially in the Bible Belt, appear to be on a roll. Voters in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and North Dakota have all beaten back proposed lotteries. And in Louisiana, voters threw video poker out of 33 parishes.

Christians are just the people who should oppose gambling because studies have found a clear correlation between gambling and a rise in suicide, divorce rates, child abuse, and crime. But as Michael Kelly writes in the Washington Post, you may not hear much about how Christians have successfully rebuffed the gambling industry. As Kelly puts it, “The forces of good government in Alabama, you see, were the armies of the church.” And the media, he added, couldn’t bring themselves to give the Christians credit.

All too often, conservatives are portrayed as people who don’t care about the poor. Christians are viewed as oppressors who want to impose their morality on others. But these gambling battles prove that it is Christians who really care about the poor. Our goal is not to oppress others; it’s to prevent the powerful from preying on the weak.

As we move into the new millennium, victories like these put the lie to those who say Christians should give up trying to transform American culture. The pessimists are dead wrong, as the good people of Alabama and South Carolina have shown us.

In the early 1990s, Cecil Fielder was a notable slugger for the Detroit Tigers and also was known as a family man for the good treatment of his wife, Stacey, son, Prince, and daughter, Ceclynn.

Fielder was traded to the New York Yankees and retired with career earnings of $47 million in salary alone, according to The Detroit News, and moved his family to a 50-room mansion in Melbourne, Florida.

But then he got hooked on gambling and lost everything.

“Gambling caused Cecil Fielder's empire to collapse,” Al Arostegui, the realtor who sold the Fielders their home, told The News. “This isn't a story of a hero who went bad but a hero who got sick. For Cecil, gambling is a disease; it's like a cancer of some sort that ate away his wealth.”

And Donald Trump's empire played a key role in Fielder's losses. In February 1999, the Trump Plaza casino in Atlantic City initially gave Fielder a $25,000 line of credit, and as Fielder gambled it all away, the casino kept extending his credit until he owed them $580,000 for a 40-hour period of play.

Fielder entered a financial spiral of manipulating banks in order to pay the bill. But in the end, Fielder lost his mansion and everything attached to it. His wife was not aware of his gambling problem until their home was foreclosed.

“I never saw any of this coming,” she told The News. “I never knew he even gambled.”

The couple is currently in a bitter divorce, and Fielder has gone into hiding, The News reported. Stacey and Ceclynn receive no money from him, and they even have no medical insurance.

[David Holwick: I remember seeing this when I was 5 years old, and the image of a possessed slot machine gave me nightmares for weeks. It is a good illustration of temptation, obsession and gambling.]

An episode of classic television show, "The Twilight Zone": Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Gibbs win a trip to Las Vegas after Mrs. Gibbs enters a jingle-writing contest. She has a “Let's have a little fun gambling” attitude, but her husband wants no part of it - he won't even let her plunk a few small coins into a slot machine.

As events unfold, a drunk staggers by and gives Mr. Gibbs a silver dollar and ultimately forces him to play it in a machine over Gibbs' protests. Gibbs pulls the handle and wins twenty more silver dollars. As he's taking them back to his room, he thinks he hears someone calling him (saying his name “Franklin!” in a raspy voice) but he dismisses this.

Back in the room, he tells his wife that no good can come of money won in this evil game, so he tells her he's going to take it back downstairs and play it until he loses it all. What an understatement. Every time he thinks about stopping, he finds it's the slot machine calling his name - and it keeps taunting him to play. His wife discovers him downstairs, after having cashed many personal checks with nothing to show for it. He inserts his last silver dollar, hoping that the “long overdue” payoff will drop when he pulls the handle. Instead, the machine jams, refusing to play anymore.

Gibbs goes ballistic, finally knocking the machine over. Defeated, he returns to his room where he begins hallucinating that the slot machine is after him. He hears it repeatedly calling “Franklin! FRANKLIN!!!” He opens the door and sees it standing there. His wife sees nothing.

Franklin winds up jumping out the window to his death, driven mad by the machine. As the episode closes, a single silver dollar rolls up beside him and spins to a stop - the machine is now outside apparently satisfied enough to return Franklin's last dollar.

*

In Jesus’ parable of the Two Debtors, a man owes the king ten thousand talents - a huge amount of money. Jesus is obviously using exaggeration to heighten the impact of the story. But in Las Vegas one episode comes near to attaining it. Terrance Watanabe made a fortune with Oriental Trading, the mail order catalog of trinkets and novelties that just about every Vacation Bible School uses. What did Terrance do with his money? Some he gave to charity in his hometown. But a bunch of it he gambled. He likes to gamble. As a matter of fact, he has gambled almost one BILLION dollars. He is only 52 years old.

Sometimes Terrance won but often enough he lost. In a single year he lost $127 million at two Las Vegas casinos owned by Harrah’s Entertainment. He claims they suckered him with free private jet rides, free luxury rooms, cases of alcohol and even pain pills without a prescription. He would get so drunk he would walk into walls and pass out at the tables, but the casino staff would wake him up and keep him gambling. Those who tried to stop him were fired, he says.

Harrah’s says he still owes them more than $14 million. In Jesus’ parable, the gracious king erases the debt and lets the man go. Not Las Vegas. Harrah’s turned the case over to a prosecutor and is asking for restitution and jail time. (In Nevada, the state gets to keep a tithe of the money they collect in such cases.)

Watanabe admits his addictions and says he is willing to fulfill his responsibilities. He just wants a little slack. But shouldn’t the casinos bear some responsibility too?

________

Adapted from the article "Gambler Wants Huge Debt Forgiven" by Richard C. Paddock, AOL News; ; December 9, 2009.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #26997]

Suzi Flanagan Wright’s husband liked to gamble every now and then and, early on, she’d gamble with him and use the winnings to help pay off her student loan. They regarded it as no big deal -- they were just among the millions of Americans who gamble as a hobby.

But then things changed, leaving Suzi to deal with raising a child while her husband went to prison for embezzlement. She also faced large gambling debts and the ongoing challenge of loving an addicted gambler.

Her struggle began innocently enough.

“One time I had left him at home and gone to Lexington to pick up his sister, and I had only left him with enough money to buy stuff for Thanksgiving dinner,” Wright, a member of First Baptist Church in Pikeville, Kentucky, said. “And I told him, ‘I’m just leaving you with enough money. Don’t you dare buy any lottery tickets.’”

Soon after she returned from the 280-mile round trip, Wright’s husband revealed that he had won $10,000 on a $2 lottery ticket, “and that got him hooked,” she said. The momentum of those earnings propelled him to more frequent gambling at higher stakes, including trips to off-track betting parlors as far away as Charleston, West Virginia.

The temptation grew worse when a betting parlor, where numerous television screens allow gamblers to bet on various horse races from a central location, opened in Prestonsburg, Kentucky. Wright said when the closest gambling source was in Charleston, her husband would not go as often. But when one opened about 25 miles from where he lived, the temptation was too great.

Now, with two bills before the Kentucky legislature for the expansion of gambling, Wright fears the temptation to gamble will hit a little too close to home for more Kentucky families like hers.

“It’s very, very hard when you have a gambling addiction to not go. It’s like if you were a diabetic and you couldn’t have ice cream and you moved right beside Baskin-Robbins,” Wright said. “The only Baskin-Robbins we’ve got right now is in Lexington, but every time I go to Lexington I go to Baskin-Robbins. If I had one in town, I’d eat there every day.”

Wright said that her husband realized he needed to stop gambling and visited a psychiatrist who prescribed a heavy dose of Prozac. For him, the drug only made the gambling worse.

“It went to the point where he started taking money at work,” Wright said. “He opened credit cards in my name and ran up balances. He would write checks on me. He would do anything he could to get his money, and then he embezzled money from work and that wound him up in jail.”

Wright’s husband spent 20 months in prison when their son was just over 2 years old, and he missed many crucial moments in the child’s early life, she said.

During her husband’s incarceration, Wright and her son became very involved in First Baptist Church in Pikeville. The family has found comfort and support through the church -- support they continue to draw on.

Although the prison sentence got Wright’s husband’s attention, it wasn’t enough to stop the gambling.

“It’s a hard habit to break. He would be the first to tell you. Even coming out of jail, it was hard not to gamble,” Wright said.

To make matters worse during her husband’s recovery, another off-track betting parlor opened in Pikeville. That means the temptation to gamble now is nearly at his doorstep, Wright said.

Gambling has wrought damage on her family that may never be repaired, Wright said, and sometimes she lives moment to moment just trying to trust her husband not to bring on more debt.

“It’s just been a big mess. It’s been seven years, and I really don’t think I’m any better off,” she said. “...I’m still paying on everything because I had to mortgage my home, I had to pay off all of those credit cards, I’ve got five and six and seven years left on bills.

“What makes me so mad is it takes away from my child,” she said. “I make really good money, but you’d never know I had a dime because I have to pay it all out. [My husband] isn’t working. Nobody will hire him and it’s just a mess. And [my son] doesn’t understand. How do you explain it to a child?”

But through it all, she hasn’t left her husband because she realizes that gambling has had control of him rather than him controlling it.

“Gambling is an illness. It’s a sickness. It’s no different than cancer,” she said. “[My husband] and I both have diabetes, which is an illness. All of these things happen. How would you like to go through something like that being that sick, and your spouse walk off just because they don’t want to deal with it?”

Despite claims by gambling supporters, Wright has seen firsthand that it doesn’t benefit schools. In addition to working fulltime, she volunteers often at her son’s elementary school because the school system can’t afford to hire people to help them, she said.

“I don’t see expanded gambling helping anything at all. I think all it can do is hurt people,” Wright said. “...It will absolutely ruin more lives than it will help. I’m here to tell you that.”

*

Gambling is big business. Very big. Mogul Sheldon Adelson owns the Las Vegas Sands Casino and earned $9 billion in 2006, with his stock up 125% since its public offering in December 2004. Adelson has made almost $1 million an hour since the 2004 Forbes 400 list was published.

One number has everybody’s attention this afternoon. But why stop at one?

Here’s the prize jackpot, plus a few other lottery stats worth knowing:

$900,000,000

The eye-popping, record-breaking Powerball jackpot value, as of Saturday afternoon. If no one wins tonight, the jackpot could crack a billion. [It eventually totaled $1.5 billion and had three winners.]

That’s based on a single winner selecting the annuity option, which pays out over three decades. Alternately ...

$558,000,000

The cash payout that rarely gets the boldfaced headline treatment, but it’s the more likely winning amount. The vast majority of jackpot winners choose the cash payout, even though it’s always significantly smaller than the jackpot.

You could hypothetically benefit from choosing the up-front payout — provided you invest the money instead of spending it. Which of course is exactly what you’d do, right?

$220,968,000

The tax man cometh. If you win and choose the lump-sum payment, expect to pay north of $200 million in federal taxes, at the 39.6 percent top income bracket — not counting state income tax.

1 in 292,201,338

One in 292 million. Those are your odds of winning the jackpot.

Not one in a million, not one in 10 million ... one in 292 million.

Are you channeling your inner Lloyd Christmas right now ... “So you’re telling me there’s a chance?”

Here’s a way to more viscerally experience the long odds. The Los Angeles Times put together a demonstration of playing the Powerball odds, in chunks of $100 or $1,000 or more — tallying up your total losses over time.

You can plug in truly enormous amounts of money and watch probability at work all afternoon, if that sounds like fun. So far, this reporter is down 104 grand.

15 percent to 73 percent

That was the range, as of 2012, of total payouts by U.S. states, as Steve Tripoli reported for NPR in 2014. That is, of all the dollars paid for lottery tickets, that’s the percentage paid back to winners.

West Virginia claimed the 15 percent, Massachusetts the 73 percent, while most states were in the 50 to 70 percent range. (You can look up your own state in our chart).

For the record: Those are all abysmal rates by gambling standards. Most casino games pay back more than 90 percent, Tripoli says; the house still wins, of course, but it doesn’t win by nearly as much as state lotteries do.

44 states (plus D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands)

The vast majority of American states offer a lottery these days. Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah and Mississippi are holdouts, refusing to participate in either Powerball or Mega Millions. Some states cite religious objections, while in Nevada, the powerful gambling industry views lotteries as competition.

Residents of those states can still play the lottery — but they have to travel to a participating state to do it.

(Puerto Rico has Powerball but not Mega Millions. Now you know.)

$70,153,520,000

That’s more than $70 billion — the total amount Americans spent on the lottery in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.

CNN Money calculates that’s more than Americans spend on sports tickets, books, video games, movie theaters and recorded music, combined.

NASA’s annual budget, for comparison, is around $17 billion. Total U.S. foreign aid for next year: just shy of $38 billion.

$230

That’s the average per capita spending on lotteries in America, as calculated by Derek Thompson in The Atlantic last year.

Of course, the cost isn’t distributed equally, he notes. There’s geographic variation — with annual spending north of $700 in Rhode Island, South Dakota and Massachusetts, based on state populations, while well under $100 per capita in other states.

There’s also variation based on income. Study after study has found low-income communities spend more of their money on lotteries than high-income communities, Thompson writes.

That economic variation is why people call state lotteries regressive taxes — that is, a way of funding the state that disproportionately takes money from the poor.

On Saturday, Vox pointed out an intriguing decade-old study suggesting that lotteries become less regressive as the jackpot size increases — that is, richer people are more likely to buy tickets for big prizes, lessening the disproportionate impact on the poor. Economist Emily Oster, then a graduate student at Harvard, suggested that a jackpot of $806 million would actually be progressive instead of regressive.

At the time, that jackpot size was theoretical — but not anymore.

27 cents

According to the lottery industry’s own trade magazine, for every dollar spent on the lottery, an average of 27 cents goes to the “beneficiaries” — the oft-touted government spending programs supported by a lottery, usually in areas like education or recreation.

A cut goes towards administering the lottery (which is far more expensive than collecting a tax — one analysis by a conservative think tank found lotteries are up to 50 times more costly than tax collection). A chunk, of course, goes towards the winners. Some goes to retailers, some to the companies that design and operate the lottery systems. What’s left goes into state coffers.

The average might be 27 cents to state expenses, like the industry says, but it can be as low as 11 cents to the dollar, NBC News reports.

Zero

That’s the impact of a lottery win on net happiness, at least at first.

A famous 1978 study found that major lottery winners were no happier than ordinary folks, and actually got less joy from daily activities. A 2008 Dutch study found winning the lottery doesn’t make a household happier.

Now, a caveat: Two studies out of England suggest that it is possible to win the lottery and be content — but only eventually.

“No researcher has ever found that people are happier in the first year after winning the lottery,” one of the researchers told The New York Times

And the Times’ social science reporter suggests that it might take longer and longer to find contentment the larger your win is. So, about that $900 million ...

Even numbers higher than 31

OK, if you insist: You can’t increase your odds of winning the lottery, but you can increase the chance that — if you do win — you won’t have to split the jackpot.

People tend to include birthdays and other dates in their lottery numbers, mathematician Aaron Abrams told NPR’s Robert Siegel in 2012, which means more numbers between 1 and 31. And people have a bias towards odd numbers.

So, for best results: Even numbers higher than 31.

But have we mentioned? One in 292,201,338.

It is estimated that Americans lost $161 billion to all forms of gambling in 2018, with $306 million of that going to online gambling. While this amount is for all types of gambling, the fastest growing kind of gambling is online. Online gambling has been increasing each year, and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated that gain. As brick-and-mortar gambling sites saw a decrease in activity, online gambling venues took up the slack. Often, people turned to online gambling during the pandemic for entertainment during long days and nights of being stuck indoors. This created the perfect storm for gambling on the 2022 Super Bowl. It is estimated that 31 million people bet more than $7.6 billion on Super Bowl LVI, an increase of 35% over 2021.

With 71% of Americans believing that gambling is morally acceptable, and only 36% of Christians believing that sports betting is morally wrong, it is clear that America has a gambling problem. It isn’t only sports betting online that is exploding. The internet offers practically any kind of gambling that someone could desire.

The internet has certain built-in features that make gambling more dangerous for people, too. Gambling is available 24/7 to anyone with a computer and an internet connection in their homes, which is more than 77% of Americans, or more than 250 million people. In addition, anyone who wants to gamble can easily circumvent age requirements by lying about their age. The fact that people can gamble in the privacy of their homes increases the likelihood that they will gamble more often and for longer periods of time. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to restrict access to online gambling for people who know they have a gambling problem.

Regrettably, most governments have succumbed to the constant barrage of gambling lobbying and voter initiatives. The vast majority of Americans can buy lottery tickets, play the standard forms of brick-and-mortar gambling like poker, roulette, and even slots, and bet on multiple sporting events all from the privacy and anonymity of their home computer screens.

While we can’t prevent people from accessing these myriad gambling opportunities, we can help them understand that God has a better way. This should be especially true for Christians. We who have professed Jesus Christ as Lord have committed to live faithful lives before him and the world. We must look to God’s Word for guidance in all things, including whether or not to gamble, and why.

Getting to the heart of gambling

To know what the Bible has to say about gambling, it can be helpful to know why people gamble and then look at what Scripture has to say about that. People gamble for a variety of reasons, but regardless of the reason, the Bible points to a better way. Below are the principal reasons that people gamble and the Bible’s better answer to the need they are trying to meet with their gambling.

Some people gamble to get money. This is the primary reason most people gamble. It is a demonstrable fact that more people gamble as the jackpot increases or they place a high value on the prize. The Christian who gambles in order to win money has failed to understand or accept that God desires to be their provider. Scripture says God will supply all the needs of the person who puts his trust in God (Matt. 10:31; Phil. 4:19). The person who gambles out of greed or for worldly wealth is valuing the wrong thing (Luke 12:15). The person who gambles out of financial desperation is trusting in the wrong source for his need. Even if he wins enough to escape his destitution, which is highly unlikely, he has chosen to reject God’s way to meet his needs (Matt. 6:33).

Some people gamble for entertainment. This is another primary reason people gamble. People will often gamble online because they are bored or they are looking for a distraction. And some people argue that gambling is just a form of entertainment, like going to a movie or a restaurant, but that is not true. No one will lose all of his retirement savings by visiting a restaurant or going to a movie, but some people will lose that and more from gambling. Christians need to consider what they are supporting and empowering when they spend their God-provided money. God calls Christians to be good stewards of their possessions, that includes their money (Luke 6:10-13). When we empower gambling venues with our money, we help keep them in business to prey on people with gambling addictions. Empowering institutions that ruin people’s lives for a few moments of entertainment is not something that Christians should take part in (Eph. 5:11).

Some people gamble to feel important or special. Casinos, whether brick-and-mortar or online, specialize in selling an illusion to people. They make them feel important in exchange for their money. Some people crave this attention and return over and over because it feeds their sense of importance and value. Any anything we rely upon apart from the Lord for our value is an idol (Psalm 135:18). The Bible tells us that God is best able to tell us of our worth and importance. Jesus can give a person a permanent realization of her worth. We are so loved by God that he sent Jesus to die a gruesome death on a cross in order to redeem us for himself (John 3:16). Through Jesus, the Christian is a child of God. That is a permanent status that should see any Christian through feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt (2 Tim. 2:13).

Some people gamble to compete against others. There is nothing wrong with healthy competition. However, when that competition threatens to destroy another person, it is no longer healthy. The Bible reminds us that we are our brother’s keeper and that we should love others as ourselves (Matt. 22:39). We have a responsibility to look out for each other. Gambling encourages the exact opposite. The only money available through gambling is the money that someone else has lost. Neighbor love calls on Christians to think of others more highly than we think of ourselves (Mark 12:31; Phil. 2:3). Gambling makes us predators rather than protectors.

Some people gamble for the thrill. Again, there is nothing in the Bible that tells us to live boring, uneventful lives. In fact, Jesus told his disciples that they would have joyful, meaningful lives through faith in him (John 10:10). The question that a thrill-seeking gambler needs to ask is whether or not the thrill of gambling is the best source of joy, happiness, excitement, or meaning. Gambling’s thrill often comes at someone else’s expense. Your involvement can perpetuate the predatory nature of the gambling industry. And while the thrill of gambling might last for a few seconds, in the end it is replaced by disappointment. If a person wins, it will not satisfy the longings of her soul (Eccl. 5:10). If a person loses, which he almost always does, he is left with emptiness and a potentially significant loss of resources. When the thrill is placed in the prospect of winning and the result is the opposite, that is a sucker’s bet. Jesus offers true and lasting joy (John 15:11).

Some people gamble to escape their problems. Gambling offers escape for a short while. In the end, however, it adds to people’s problems. Once gambling’s distraction is gone, the person’s problems remain and are compounded by the loss of money, which may very well be a principal reason the person was seeking a distraction in the first place. Jesus called on people to admit their problems and place them on him, not run from them (Matt. 11:28-30). The Apostle Peter wrote that Christians can place all their cares on the Lord because he cares for them (1 Pet. 5:7). Christianity encourages people to acknowledge their problems and sins and turn to God for help with them. He is ready and able to help those who admit their need and seek him. Anything else we run to for help will fall short.

Some people gamble to feel hopeful. It is hard to carry on when hope is lost. Gambling offers a temporary hope that seldom rewards the person who leans on it. Until the ball falls in the slot on the roulette wheel or the last card is turned over, the gambler feels all the hope in the world. Anything is possible in that moment, but then all that hope is dashed and even greater fear and hopelessness rushes in. God, on the other hand, is the God of second chances. He has demonstrated in the Bible and in countless lives all around us that those who put their trust in him will never be disappointed or hopeless (Rom. 15:4). God is greater than any problem someone might have and greater than any obstacle that stands in their way (Phil. 4:19).

Whether someone is gambling online or at a casino, the Bible makes it clear that any activity that replaces trust in God with luck dethrones God in that person’s life. God ordained work as our means of support. From the beginning, when God put our original parents in the Garden, he revealed that he designed us to work (Gen. 2:15) as a means of his provision for us. Gambling perverts that design and promises something for nothing. That promise is as empty as the serpent’s first deception. Luck is the sand that will not support a life. God is the rock that will (Matt. 7:24-27).

There is more to be said about gambling, yet regardless of why someone gambles, God is the better choice. Gambling is a false idol. It destroys, perverts, and lies to people who look to it for anything. The true source of happiness and meaning in life is found in God. He alone can deliver what he promises. He alone is dependable and trustworthy. We must all learn to trust him and place our hope and futures in him. When we do that, we will never be disappointed. May Jesus be Lord in our lives.

Ashley Revell, a professional gambler from England, caught the media’s attention in 2004 with a single bet he made. First, he sold everything he owned - his house, car, and even his clothes. Through auctions and tailgate sales he raised $135,300. The online gambling company Blue Square also gave him some money and in gratitude he legally changed his name to Ashley Blue Square Revell.

Revell then traveled to Las Vegas, entered the Plaza Casino and went to the roulette table. As he stood in front of the wheel, in front of thousands of onlookers and well-wishers, as well as millions watching on television, the croupier asked Revell to take a moment to think about what he was doing. Asked if he was sure he wanted to make the bet, Revell replied “I am sure”. The shook hands, and then the wheel was put in motion.

As the wheel spun, Ashley placed his bet. He had considering placing it on Black but changed his mind at the last minute and put it all on Red. As the ball bounced through the different slots there was a deathly silence throughout the casino. The ball finally came to rest in slot number 7 Red. The entire casino floor erupted in cheers of celebration as the gambler doubled his money. Everyone expected him to keep on gambling but he gave the croupier a tip and walked out.

This experience led to numerous other people from around the world choosing to follow in Revell’s footsteps and arrive in Las Vegas with just a suitcase and a wallet containing what they had made from selling everything. The casinos reportedly have refused to allow any further spins like Revell’s but that’s not to say that some of those other hopefuls haven’t made their bet without the casino realizing they were literally betting their entire life’s worth. English media mogul Simon Cowell said that Revell’s bet was inspirational in the creation of his game show Red or Black?

To stake everything on one decision seems foolhardy but it is exactly what Jesus demanded of us. In Matthew 16:25-26 he told his followers, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

The key is not to stake everything on one bet, but to stake everything on the right bet. Even in winning his big wager, Ashley Revell did nothing to gain the assurance of salvation. It is wiser to stake everything on Jesus.

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Adapted from material at several internet sites.